The Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued a land warning for Typhoon Podul today, as the storm continued on its path toward waters southeast of Taiwan.
The CWA issued a land warning at 2:30pm for Hualien, Taitung and Pingtung counties as well as Kaohsiung, indicating that those areas are to be inside the outer rim of the storm within 18 hours.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Administration
As of 2pm, the eye of the storm was 580km east-southeast of Taitung, and moving west-northwest at 29kph, CWA data showed.
It was carrying maximum sustained winds near its center of 119kph, with gusts of up to 155kph.
CWA forecaster Liu Yu-chi (劉宇其) said Podul is already affecting waters off eastern Taiwan, the Bashi Channel and the southern part of the Taiwan Strait, and it is expected to intensify slightly and see its radius expand.
The typhoon's eye is expected to approach Taiwan at about noon tomorrow, making landfall near Taitung, Liu said.
He forecast heavy rain for Hualien, Taitung and mountainous areas in southern Taiwan tomorrow, while other areas could see intermittent rainfall.
From late tomorrow night to early Thursday, Podul is to move into the southern coastal region of China, with outlying Kinmen County still experiencing significant wind and rain, and strong gusts continuing along Taiwan's coastal areas, the CWA said.
In Hualien County, nearly 700 people are to be evacuated from their homes to guard against the risk of overflow from a natural dam formed after a landslide set off by a previous typhoon.
"We must especially urge people living downstream to follow government instructions and evacuate," said Chu Chung-jui, an official of the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction.
"Authorities are closely monitoring this landslide lake," he told a Taipei briefing for the typhoon task force.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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